Our Baby Registry: 7 Big Items That Are as Sleek as They Are Functional

The question I get from all of you the most (after wanting to hear about the nursery plans) is what’s going on our baby registry. And yes, I will eventually share the whole thing!

I posted a few weeks ago that when I first sat down to look at registering I was completely overwhelmed. SO.MUCH.BABY.GEAR. My head was spinning and so many products seemed similar, and we didn’t know what was needed or not.

Enter – the help of all of you!

Hah and after spending a bit of time looking at what is out there and weighing options, it actually became much easier. I even ended up falling in love with some products that I’m now so excited to get!

The biggest priorities for us when choosing what to register for are:

first: don’t get too much stuff.

second: find safe, quality pieces that work for baby, us, and, our home/life. Yes, it matters to us that our home doesn’t look completely overrun by baby (or kids). I’ve seen so many parents do this successfully and am inspired to follow suit. It was also a very big theme in the one and only baby book we read… kids become a part of parents’ life. Not the other way around. So many of you messaged me on Instagram saying this is totally possible. It’s all about having clear organization and storage options for toys and kid stuff, and setting rules and limits.

I know I haven’t used any of these yet (what first-time mom creating a registry has?!), but based on reviews and personal recommendations from friends and strangers on Insta (thank you!), here are a few of the big items we’ll be registering for for Baby S!

So here we go… 7 BIG items (literally big – they take up a lot of room) that are as beautiful as they are functional!

The carseat choice was between the UppaBaby Mesa (above) and the Britax B-Safe Elite Infant Carseat (which is apparently the safest and fun fact the carseat that Will and Kate use for their bebe’s!). Honestly I went with this because I love how it worked with the stroller I wanted (below), how it looked, and it had equally great reviews.

I would do the Loic (white) but the carseat doesn’t come in that color, oddly, so I’m going with the next best option: this beautiful chambray which is technically called Henry on the site. I just love soft colors for babies!

It’s a black and white stroller with brown leather handle. As Chandler would say, could this stroller BE any prettier?

And the reviews on functionality and safety are all amazing. The UppaBaby Vista was an easy choice. The color “Loic” is the white option but it comes in several others! The Mesa carseat pops right into it, then you can transition to this more traditional seat once baby is a little older.

After feeling a little stuck on the many swing/bouncer/nest options, I was sold as soon as I saw bloom’s Coco bouncer. It’s functional and beautiful – exactly what I’m looking for for something that is going to be a short-term permanent fixture on our dining room table and in our living room. This will blend right in!

We’re going with the white with light wood frame but it comes in three great colors! They have another stylish design, but I love that this folds flat and the incline is adjustable.

So the 4moms Breeze pack-n-play had me sold for three reasons: again, LOVE how it looks. It says grey but it seems black? Not sure. But it’s incredibly easy to open and close (yay!), and the height of the mattress is adjustable so it can be raised for infant stage. We’ll take this with us every time we visit grandparents and siblings. Danielle and I could even use it in the office!

I asked a lot of you about the Dock-a-Tot on insta and the reviews were quite mixed! Then I heard from a few of you to go with this option – the Snuggle-Me-Organic is an organic, more pillow-y option developed by a mom of 7 in Minnesota. I don’t know about all of you, but I definitely trust moms with more experience… and she has the experience!

And this looks like an awesome option to have baby rest in next to us on bed, sofa, or while we’re cooking.

My brother brought one of these to the lake house for his baby girl this past summer and said “you need to get this when you have kids!” (This was before we were pregnant.) Hah And we are! (I’m an easy sell.)

Hah but really, this eliminates adding yet another new piece of furniture to the home (a traditional high chair). So we’re going to try just using this, which easily attaches to most tables (except those with glass tops, I believe) and an EZPZmat at our dining table. This is also folds flat and is great and easy to bring to other people’s homes and restaurants!

Ok this one is actually still a little TBD but it’s definitely between the Keekaroo (shown here) and the very similar Hatch which has a scale built in.

Yes, I’d love a beautiful changing pad cover but now that you know we’re having baby boy, we are definitely going with one of these easy-to-wipe-down changing pad options. Baby boys apparently just pee everywhere all the time? Yea… easy clean-up sounds good. Hah We’re getting a few blankets and covers to throw on top for winter because a few of you said this can get cold when temps drop.

As I said, I’ll be sharing more and eventually a full list of our registry! Hope this helps as I know a lot of you are up in the air making these same decisions!

Leave a Comment

Comment

Name

Email

Website

12 Comments

Joanna wrote:

I am OBSESSED with my Vista stroller. Like, out of all the things we purchased, it might be the best? And now I’m pregnant with #2 and we’re pleased with how easily it transitions to a double. I would up vote ordering the bassinet for it, though. We used it a TON. It clicks on and off so easily and my daughter napped in it all the time. So nice to be able to unclip it and carry her right inside and let her keep sleeping (on a flat surface!) if she fell asleep during a walk. It also came with a mosquito cover and a bubble top for rain, which was a nice bonus that we would have never thought to buy but really appreciated.

As for the rest of your registry, check out Lucie’s List. It’s the most thorough, and everything is broken down by category and then divided by price. The feeding section was the most helpful for me, personally. There are so.many.bottles to choose from. The site is brutally honest and helped me SO much and made the registry process so much less overwhelming.

LOVE it all! Thank you for all the great ideas. Striking the balance between beautiful and functional is difficult, but so glad to know there are good options out there! Also, I’m reading a book called “Bringing up Bebé” and it’s all about French parenting style (written by an American journalist). It sounds similar to the book you read, and I absolutely love it so far!

Such lovely items you’ve chosen!
Are baby registries common in the US? I’m absolutely not trying to be rude but I would be so uncomfortable asking my family and friends to buy me things like that, i guess it’s just not the done thing in Australia.

Thank you for sharing, Alaina! I have a 5 and 3 year old and you’re making me want another! I second the other comment on buying the bassinet. My daughter loved her stroller bassinet, I’d swaddle her, play white noise and she’d sleep through everything. It was my favorite baby item and most used. It felt special to use it 🙂 I ended up passing it on to another mom, it isn’t something we saved so if you decide to buy, I suggest planning on using it for a few months and then letting it go. Facebook BST groups are great for this type of stuff.

Such lovely items you’ve chosen!
Are baby registries common in the US? I’m absolutely not trying to be rude but I would be so uncomfortable asking my family and friends to buy me things like that, i guess it’s just not the done thing in Australia.

First, huge congrats! Such an exciting time! My little girl is 6 months old and I can’t believe how quickly time has flown 😭. I have the uppababy vista in loic and love love love it! I can’t tell you how many walks to Whole Foods and Target I made over the summer with tons of bags fitting in the stroller basket, more so than other strollers hold. Good call on getting the uppababy car seat- I did another one and while it clips into the stroller it’s not as easy as they made it for the matching brand. We also have that lobster chair and it’s so convenient and space saving! Did you check out the lotus travel crib? Similar aesthetic but it has a cool side opening and converts to a bassinet too 🙂

Love it all!! The Phil and Ted’s worked great for us! It was our only high chair as well! City dwellers=space saver! 🙂 We loved it so much, it’s our favorite baby gift to give! Congratulations on your sweet baby boy!

Carly, yes registry items for babies and weddings are very popular ways to ask for expensive purchases in the US. I have 2 nieces, one nephew, and grew up with 3 sisters. One thing my mother always stressed was to buy essential items (but shop sales!) but look for discounts on cheaper items you can buy later like high chairs or foldaway strollers/buggy. My first niece got a ton of things at her baby shower that my sister and bro in law put in our garage because they never used it. While it’s nice having the latest whatever for a baby, my sister most appreciated her gently used, hand me down clothes from friends’s babies and inexpensive Target or Amazon finds. The baby store, Carter’s, and good old TJ Maxx and Marshall’s have great finds for clothes and accessories! Home Goods and Target have outstanding bed room decor too. Babies dirty up things so quickly that it’s hardly worth spending lots of money or time buying higher priced items.

Congrats!! I’m about ready to pop with my first baby and just went through the baby registry craziness. I also registered for a few of the items you posted about (after a TON of research and recommendations) and the only thing I would add is that, when you are doing your actual registry, don’t use Babylist. It’s a website that supposedly lets you merge all of your separate registries (for example, Buy Buy Baby and Amazon) into one place, but it lacked a lot of practical functionality (like removing things once people purchased them) and we ended up with a lot of duplicate items and frustrating return scenarios. So when letting people know where you’re registered, just use those stores’ registries. Also, if you’re still deciding on whether to get the Peanut changing pad, do it. Three of my mom friends recommended it to me.